Never Tell Them We Are The Same People Notes On Pakistan

Many Indians see Pakistan and Pakistanis as irredeemably hostile.

Of the rest, while some argue that, despite Partition, were still the same people, others dont really know any better to have an opinion.

Veteran journalist Kesava Menon offers a unique and personal perspective that pulls the third category of Indians out of their indifference, and pokes holes in the blackandwhite outlook of the first and the glib optimism of the second.Menon has been a longtime commentator on Pakistani politics, ever since his stint as The Hindus correspondent in Pakistan in the early 1990s, a crucial period in that countrys recent history.

The Islamic hardliner and dictator Ziaul Haq had died in an air crash, and the future of the nations new experiment with democracy was at best uncertainwith Nawaz Sharif coming to office after Benazir Bhuttos brief first run as prime minister.

People were free enough to breathe easy, but yet too feeble to speak up to power.

So while the army was now led by a nonfanatical professional, religious fundamentalists with little electoral clout could still openly hurl obscenities about Benazir at a PPP rally; the threestarred pioneer of anti India jihad could personally express genuine hope for Indo Pak friendship to the author; and a prime ministerial gala could alter its menu to accommodate a South Indian Hindu journalist who they assumed must be vegetarian.While we see both the authoritarian and the democratic tendencies at work in Pakistans politicsin the 1990s, as in the decades before and sincethis book contains more than just political commentary.

It is also an attempt to understand the idea of Pakistan, its sense of itselfboth as a people and a nationstateand how India ought to deal with its intractable neighbour.Calm and lucid yet simultaneously playful and trenchant, this analysis of the culture and politics of Pakistan visvis India combines deep insight and engaging anecdotes to deliver a thoroughly entertaining take on the complex and often tumultuous relationship between the two countries.